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Today, Gabi and I are cruising all over Vail Mountain (claiming to have 5289 acres of ski area):
from Simba to Game Creek Bowl to Highline Express, covering the terrain from the eastern to the western ski area boundary!
My favorite run is racing down the wide open Flap Jack. The yellow banner half-way down the trail says: “Flaps Down on Flap Jack”.
I pretend that I don’t know what that means. My 198 cm long Voelkl Giant Slalom skis like to go fast and I time my run (and fun) to make sure that nobody is skiing in front of or near me! Gabi must enjoy this as well; she is always close on my tail!
We go to bed happy and tired, having skied 6 out of 7 days.
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This is what we do all week! There is no sleeping on the slopes. The powder is too good.
Gabi and I ski Vail Mountain all day Sunday. “Poppyfields” is on the agenda in the afternoon, and this time, I have no breathing problem at 11 250 feet (3430 meters!). Carsten is flying in from Newark, joining us in the evening.
Monday is another sunny day. The new powder snow is calling us, and Carsten does not get any time to get used to the altitude. We ski Born Free, Cub’s Way, Mid-Vail Express, Hunky Dory twice, Northwoods, Flap Jack, Highline Express twice, Flap Jack, Tin Pants, Choker Cut Off, Northwoods, lunch at Buffalo’s, followed by the leisurely, long “Sleepy Time” run to the Back Bowls, Blue Sky Basin, Skyline Express, Cloud 9, Tea Cup Express to the top of the mountain. From here it is a long run home: Whiskey Jack, Flap Jack, Northface Cat Walk, Lionshead and Born Free back to Lionshead Square. Strangely enough, we never encounter any lions all week long.
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This is our lucky day. It is Valentine’s Day, February 14, and Gabi and I spent most of the day on airplanes. Amazingly, we make all our connections: United 5350 to Washington Dulles, UA 43 to Denver and UA 576 to Vail/Eagle. The clouds break up during the 30 minute flight across the snow-covered Rocky Mountains, and I have a nice view of the slopes at Beaver Creek and Arrowhead. We see black clouds just to the West, as we step off the plane in Eagle. 15 minutes later, and a blinding blizzard greets me as I am trying to find our rental car. I don’t care that the return flight to Denver is on hold for now. We are here and have 8 days of ski vacation ahead of us.
Gabi and I celebrate with lunch at the Grand Avenue Grill in Eagle, followed by sitting in the outdoor hot tub (in the snowstorm) at our Simba Run condo in Vail.